USSR qualified for the contest four times in a row before that, so Soviet supporters were waiting for this tradition to be carried on. Besides at that moment USSR were European Championship runners-up (Belgium-72) and Olympic Games bronze medalists (Munich-72).
To reach the final stage Soviet team had to go through the qualification. European countries were divided into 9 groups with 3 or 4 teams in each.
Winners of eight groups qualified for the World Cup at once while the best team of the ninth group had to perform in playoffs against one of South American teams. Ironically USSR were in this ninth group.
Fight for playoffs
At the group stage Soviet team faced Ireland and France. In the first match Olexandr Ponomariov’s men suffered narrow defeat at Parc des Princes – 1:0.
The rest of the distance USSR covered in high gear.
Two victories over Ireland in a row (1:2, 1:0, pictured) and gained revenge against Frenchmen.
Soviet players defeated France by two goals to nil and thus finished first in their group. It should be mentioned that after two qualifiers Yevgeny Goryansky took charge of the team instead of Olexandr Ponomariov.
Five FC Dynamo Kyiv performers featured for USSR on the group stage: Volodymyr Muntian (3 appearances, 1 assist), Oleh Blokhin (3 appearances, 1 goal), Viktor Kolotov (3 appearances, 1 goal), Yevhen Rudakov (2 appearances, 1 goal conceded) and Anatoliy Puzach (1 appearance, 1 assist).
Last obstacle
The last obstacle on the way to the world contest were Chile national team.
The first leg took place in Moscow. The game ended in a goalless draw. Another Dynamo player Mykhailo Fomenko made his debut for USSR in that fixture.
After that the most dramatic part of the action started. At that time military coup was taking place in Chile.
FIFA refused to hold the fixture on neutral turf and Soviet team decided not to perform in the decisive match.
On November 21 1973 one of the most weir games ever took place.
After the starting whistle Chile players kicked off and hit the open goal.
Thus USSR suffered forfeit defeat (3:0) and lost the opportunity to take part in the World Cup…
Twists of fate
Mykhailo Fomenko performed for FC Dynamo Kyiv till 1978. He won the Cup Winners’ Cup, UEFA Super Cup with the White-Blues and triumphed in Soviet Top League and USSR Cup several times.
Fomenko started his career of a coach in Sumy, where he took charge of FC Frunzynets. After that he worked with FC Desna Chernihiv, FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, FC Guria Lanchkhuti, Rashid Baghdad, FC Avtomobilist Sumy and FC Dynamo Kyiv (1992-1993).
Since December 26 2012 Mykhailo Fomenko is Ukraine national team head coach.
After the 1974 World Cup qualification Volodymyr Muntian won the Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Super Cup with Dynamo.
In 1978 Muntian was in a bad car accident after which it took him quite a lot of time to recover.
In 1980 he became SCA Kyiv on-the-field coach. Later Muntian was the head of Kyiv Football Federation.
From 1986 till 1988 he worked in Madagascar as COSFAP Antananarivo head coach, from 1995 till 1997 he was in charge of Guinea national team.
Today Volodymyr Muntian is the head of Ukrainian pro veterans Association.
Viktor Kolotov was Dynamo skipper in 198 official fixtures. In 1981 he finished his career.
From 1984 till 1992 Kolotov was FC Dynamo Kyiv assistant coach. In 1993 he took charge of FC Borysfen Boryspil. Later he was appointed to the post of Ukraine U-21 coach twice.
Viktor Kolotov passed away on January 3 2000 at the age of 50.
Anatoliy Puzach finished his career in 1973. The same year Valeriy Lobanovskyi returned to Kyiv from Dnipropetrovsk and Puzach became his assistant coach. In 1990 Lobanovskyi left for Middle East and Anatoliy took charge of Dynamo. He was fired in 1992.
He returned to football only in 1997 as Lobanovskyi came back to Kyiv.
Anatoliy Puzach passed away on March 19 2006.
Goalkeeper Yevhen Rudakov finished his career in 1977. He won the Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Super Cup with the White-Blues.
As a coach he worked only with two professional clubs – FC Spartak Ivano-Frankivsk (1979) and FC Kremin Kremenchuh (1994).
He is 42nd on the list of best European keepers of the XX century.
Yevhen Rudakov died on December 21 2011.
After 1974 World Cup qualification Oleh Blokhin’s career went up in the world.
In 1975 Blokhin made a strong contribution into FC Dynamo Kyiv triumph in Cup Winners’ Cup and became the best player of Europe.
Anyway he took part in his first World Cup only in 1982 being thirty years old. Four years later the forward did that again.
Blokhin featured for Dynamo till 1987. On November 20 1987 he netted his last goal for the White-Blues against FC Rotor Volgograd within the USSR Cup. It was his 314th goal ever. His Soviet Top League record remained unbeaten (211 goals).
In 1987 Oleh Blokhin joined SK Vorwärts Steyr and spent one season featuring for this team. After that he performed for Aris Limasol for one more year after which he finished his career.
In 1990 Oleh Blokhin became Olympiacos FC head coach. Later he worked with PAOK FC, Ionikos FC and AEK Athens FC. In 2003 he took charge of Ukraine national team. Under Blokhin’s charge the Yellow-Blues qualified for the 2006 World Cup and reached the quarterfinal.
In 2012 Ukraine didn’t manage to get out of the group at Euro-2012.
On September 25 2012 Oleh Blokhin was appointed to the post of FC Dynamo Kyiv head coach. Unfortunately two seasons of his work with the White-Blues were failures.
On April 16 2014 Blokhin was fired.
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